Prof. John Stackhouse’s Weblog

The great science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose most famous work is 2001: A Space Odyssey, wrote a powerful short story that has stuck with me for the thirty-plus years since I first read it. What if, he asked as his premise, the stars came out only once every thousand years? How would we react to, and value, such an occurrence?

The Stackhouse family recently celebrated two birthdays, those of our younger two sons. Coincidentally, we read through several books of the Torah this past summer in family Bible reading, with many chapters dealing with ancient Israel’s tabernacle and its elaborate system of worship. Such chapters are full of restrictions about who can do what, where, and when–and yet they describe the amazing opportunity for at least the representative of the people to actually meet with God, with no intermediaries, in direct communication.

I found myself wondering: What if every year on your birthday you yourself–and not just a high priest–were allowed to dress in special robes and go to a special room in your local temple and there, for five precious minutes, you could say anything you wanted to the God of the universe and be guaranteed that he would hear you?

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We evangelicals are a funny bunch when it comes to numbers. Some of us sectarian types–and I was raised among such, in a little church in northern Ontario–used statistics to congratulate ourselves on our sanctity, by way of inverse proportionality. The proof of our holiness was precisely in our tiny numbers. We hadn’t “sold out” to the culture, like the “liberal” churches had, and thus we were faithfully small.

Now a lot of evangelicals, here and abroad, congratulate ourselves because our numbers are big. Big church memberships, big churches, big church staffs, big budgets, big paracongregational organizations, big schools, big everythings: clearly God is blessing us!

(Meanwhile, some in the liberal/mainline churches have flipped things around and are congratulating themselves, precisely as we fundies used to do, for their refusal to “sell out” to the culture, maintaining their prophetic integrity and thus their declining numbers.)

So what about the decline of churchgoing in Canada–and in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and, according to some recent surveys, the United States–over the last few decades? Evangelicals have been alarmed at this decline. But should we be? Read the rest of this entry »

Oprah Winfrey’s latest spiritual sensation is The Secret. Her talk show has featured it prominently, her website presents a lot of material on it, and she directs us to those who are now marketing The Secret through webcasts, DVDs, and other media that more than coincidentally recall The Da Vinci Code.

The Secret promises a better life for everyone. Testimonies abound from those who have found business success, romance, marital happiness, emotional and physical healing, and weight loss (not to be despised) through applying The Secret. So should we, as the advertisements proclaim, prepare for “a new era for mankind”?

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Does this sound like you, or someone you know?

A friend recently wrote in answer to a question about her interest in spiritual things:

“I am not entirely sure what path I am on, but I know I am headed somewhere…destination totally unknown. I question my own sanity frequently, yet I feel most of the time that I am one of the sanest people I know.

“I am disgusted by the degradation of society, astounded that morality is found in a sad few and lost in too many. I believe that common sense is my best friend, yet at times I feel totally irrational. I strive for good, yet somehow seem to have difficulty doing what is right all the time.

“I wish I had the strength of my convictions every time I need them. I lose the ability to love myself from time to time.

“Maybe I am on a spiritual journey and just haven’t recognized it. I’m sure I sound like a lunatic!”

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